Statements and communiques
Mozambique journalist still missing three months later
This year on 7 July 2020 marked exactly three months since Mozambican journalist Ibraimo Abu Mbaruco went missing and to this day authorities in that country are yet to come up with a plausible...
Tanzania resorts to fake news laws to shut down TV station
The Tanzanian government has suspended Kwanza Online TV for 11 months for allegedly publishing an unbalanced, biased, misleading and disruptive story on the state of the COVID-19 in that country. On...
SADC govts should cushion media against COVID-19 threats
The media in Southern Africa has over the years been facing a myriad of problems such as dwindling advertising revenue and declining sales for the print media amid the rapid shift to digital and...
Government surveillance should be lawful, justified and necessary
MISA Zimbabwe takes note of the chain of events that have transpired in these last few months in Zimbabwe, which seem to point to increased attempts by the government to promote and entrench mass...
High Court orders Zimbabwe Media Commission to suspend accreditation process
The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has been ordered by the High Court to suspend its accreditation process following an urgent application instituted by the Zimbabwe Online Content Creators Trust...
Tanzania’s cybercrime law anathema to democracy and free speech
Tanzanian journalist Mary Victor, with the Raia Mwema newspaper was charged for sedition after she allegedly shared a video clip of patients allegedly fleeing a COVID-19 centre in that country. She...
COVID-19, fake news laws being used to stifle free speech
With the ubiquity of social media, governments in Southern Africa are coming up with several regulations under the pretext of regulating the scourge of misinformation, yet they are using these laws...
Cyber Bill subject to Parly procedures despite COVID-19 lockdown
The Parliament of Zimbabwe says it will adhere to requisite parliamentary processes following the gazetting of the Cybersecurity and Data Protection Bill notwithstanding the COVID-19 lockdown...
Content creators file court application against ZMC accreditation
The Zimbabwe Online Content Creators Trust (ZOCC) has filed an urgent chamber application with the High Court seeking an order for suspension of the Zimbabwe Media Commission’s (ZMC) accreditation...